Grace Cavalieri

Because I missed you so much
I entered the contest.
It was easy.
The only requirement was that I cut a heart
out of the center of my head.
It would grow back.
Even if our teeth touched
when we kissed the other contestants
we’d get a chance for second prize.
I couldn’t wait.
Besides, who doesn’t like a picnic?
The Chinese man was playing a violin; All
our words were kites flying in the wind.
It’s O.K. I assured the woman next to me
They’re all arbitrary anyway
and they don’t always mean what they say.
She borrowed my main ingredient
In gratitude.
I didn’t care,
because each man there was to choose
the woman he wanted to feed him a cherry
on a silver spoon.
My man stuck his thumb in the spoon
and popped it right in his mouth before the start.
That’s why I lost the contest.
But before I could enter the pain
of the lesson learned,
you were there in the chair on the stand by the band,
with the back of your neck just right,
ready for kissing,
and a doll with paper wings won, just for me,
in your hands

Grace Cavalieri’s new book is WITH (Somondoco Press 2016.) She’s the author of several books and has also produced plays. Her most recent play is “Anna Nicole: Blonde Glory.” (Theatre for the New City, NYC 2012.) She celebrates 40 years on public radio with “The Poet and The Poem” now recorded at The Library of Congress. She’s taught at Antioch College and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She’s the founder of two poetry presses in DC, still thriving, and is presently the poetry columnist for The Washington Independent Review of Books. Grace Cavalieri was awarded the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from The Washington Independent Review. She received the George Garrett Award from AWP for Service to Literature; two Allen Ginsberg Awards ; Paterson Award; Bordighera Poetry Prize; and the inaugural Columbia Award; A Pen Fiction Award; plus CPB’s Silver Medal.